Virginia Supreme Court Upholds School-Funding Formula

By Jessica Portner

In a victory for relatively wealthy school districts, the Virginia Supreme Court has upheld the state's school-funding formula, arguing that eliminating fiscal disparities between school systems is "simply not required by the constitution.''

The state's highest court this month ruled against a coalition of poor rural districts, which claimed that significant differences between rich and poor jurisdictions violated the right to an education under the state constitution.

In his opinion for the unanimous court, however, Judge Roscoe B. Stephenson Jr. wrote that while abolishing funding imbalances is "a worthy goal,'' any changes must...